Cuban stars have made huge impact on game

The number of players defecting from Cuba to play North American professional baseball has been remarkable, considering the danger that confronted many of these players and the jeopardy in which their families have sometimes been placed.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, at least 75 Cuban defectors became Major League players during the dictatorship of Fidel Castro. A similar number defected from Cuba and became Minor League players. Fredi Gonzalez left Cuba as a child, and he later became a big league manager for the Marlins and the Braves.

The Cuban ballplayer making his way, one way or another, to America has become a staple of recent baseball history, even though it is otherwise often a series of unusual stories.

Now, with the death of Castro, and the recent efforts to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States, there is hope that there may be an opening for something resembling routine movement between the two nations. Major League Baseball would look at any change that would ease the movement of baseball players from Cuba as a personnel bonanza.

The cloak-and-dagger defections could be replaced by a more advanced system of business transactions — something like the posting system, for instance, that brings players to North America from Japan.

We are still some distance from that level of national interaction. As of right now, Cuban players who wish to come to America to play professional baseball must still defect. But the North American game has been already been improved by the influx of Cuban players, and Major League Baseball can dream of many talented Cubans further enriching the quality of play.

A sampling of Cuban defectors who have made an impact in the Major League, in alphabetical order:

Jose Abreu Abreu, a first baseman and designated hitter, defected in 2013. He won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in ’14, when he led the league in slugging percentage (.581) for the White Sox.

Jose Canseco OK, Canseco has been a mixed blessing. He came to Florida with his family as an …

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